Many years ago someone told me that all actions came either from a place of love or a place of fear. At the time I scoffed at it as too simplistic. And I still think it's simple – but now I think it's basically true, or true enough. Actions come from a place of love, or from somewhere else. We can call it fear, or it might be doubt, past trauma, convention or tradition, pain of one sort or another, lack of freedom or power. But not love, essentially. Actions that come from love we can suppose to be furthering the cause of love. Maybe that love is self love, or maybe it is love for another, of a community, or the earth. Actions that come from love follow my yearnings, desires, heartfelt responses, inner truth.
This experiment is to look at our own lives through this lens, the provocation of:
What if all my actions were to come from a place of love? What would that even entail, and what might my life look like if I were to do that?
You will need: Journal and pen. Quiet place (inside or outside) to reflect
Time: 30 mins to an hour
Begin by grounding and centering. Take a few moments to check in with your body and breath, noticing how they are today. You might want to introduce the word, or the feeling or concept of love to your breath and body, and notice what happens. Perhaps your belly relaxes, or your throat tightens, your toes clench or your spine straightens. There's no wrong or right way to be with love, but we can choose to welcome these reactions and feelings, maybe observing through the space of a few more breaths what happens with our continued attention.
Ask yourself, what are the challenges that love brings you currently, in your life? There might be challenges within various relationships, health or self-talk or other personal situations, challenges about living up to your values and beliefs. Taking up your journal and pen, make a list. It's fine if there are only one or two items on it – but there may be five, ten, or more. Make the points as specific as you can, so rather than self-talk write I put myself down with my self-talk, or instead of work, write I'm working in a job that I don't love.
Then put aside the journal and pen and allow yourself to relax as fully as you can, letting go of all thoughts and constructs for the moment.
When you are ready, imagine the crown of your head opening like the petals of a flower. You might even imagine a lotus, rose, or some other flower. At the same time, become aware of the stars, and the Star Goddess which we can choose to recognise as Love. Allow this Love to flow down, as it naturally does all around you, and even into the crown of your head, the point of Love in the Pearl Pentacle, when we run it through the body. Imagine this as a refresher dose of universal love, pouring down into the container of yourself.
Spend some time feeling and breathing this in. Perhaps you will experience it in sensations – a flowing warmth or a sparkling effervescence, or in colours – warm red, glowing gold, cool blue, or as an image, such as letting your whole self become that flower, or in some other way entirely. Perhaps you just breathe it in and know it in your mind. Spend five to ten minutes with this, until you can really recognise the difference and feel it is established within you.
Imagine that when an action or decision is required from you some of this love, sourced from the Star Goddess herself, can flow through you as the conduit, and into that decision or action. You might want to try opening your mouth and imagining this love emerging with your breath, into the world. Perhaps words will come as well, or you will want to move your hands and imagine the love flowing out through your palms and fingertips. You might try walking a few steps in this flow, imagining you are treading in the path laid down by love. Breathe into this a little longer, leaning into the idea of being sustained by this love that flows as endlessly as starlight.
When you are ready, pick up your journal again. Read the first of the challenges you wrote down. Imagine this force of love that is within you flowing out towards this situation. You can ask yourself questions such as:
You might want to jot some notes down before you move to the next challenge on your list, and do the same thing. Let the love flow through you into the situation. Breathe deeply while asking yourself some questions. Take notes if that seems useful.
Depending how you are feeling you might wish to pause this exercise after two or three of your challenging situations, or you may be on a roll and want to examine all of them! Do what feels best.
Before you complete the exercise, list several action points – things you will actually do – for each of those situations. Action points might look like:
You may notice similar themes or action points arising from one challenge to the next – or maybe not.
When you are done, for now, take some time to rest, quietly breathing. You might thank the Star Goddess, and even though you may still be aware of Love, and the love that is flowing through you, you can allow your attention to widen to other things as well, such as the quality of the breeze, thoughts of what you are doing with the rest of the day, or something else.
Over the next several weeks continue to return to this process, of breathing love in from the universe, flowing it through you, and asking how it can inspire and support your actions and decisions. Let yourself explore and test out what changes, how it feels, and what happens as you lean into these choices, allowing love to be the guide.